CIA CALLED A 'COVERT ARM OF PRESIDENCY' BY FORMER AGENT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00587R000200780024-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 17, 2010
• Sequence Number: 24
• Publication Date: April 24, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/17: CIA-RDP91-00587R000200780024-1
EAU CLAIRE LEADER-TELEGRAM (WI)
24 April 1985
CIA called a 'covert a rmo
residency' by tormer agent
By Bob Brown
Leader-Telegram staff
The role of the CIA, according
to a disillusioned former member,
is to provide the president of the
United States with those things he
can't get through legitimate chan-
nels.
Ralph McGehee a 25-year agen-
cy veteran, o a small audience
at the Unitarian Church in Eau
Tuesday that the CIA is
the covert arm of the presiden-
cy"
In his book, "Deadly 'Deceits,"
McGehee wrote: "The.CIA is not
an intelligence agency. In fact, it
acts as an anti-intelligence agen-
cy, producing only that infor-
m ation wanted by policymakers to
support their plans, and suppress-
ing information that does not sup-
port those plans..
"As the covert arm of the presi-
dent, the CIA uses disinformation,
much of it aimed at the U.S. pub-
lic, to mold opinion."
Much of what he saw the CIA do
in Vietnam between 1954 and 1975,
McGehee sees being repeated to-
day in Central America. He is
particularly concerned about
Nicaragua, where the Reagan ad-
ministration is backing the Con-
tras - guerrilla fighters who op-
pose the ruling Sandinista govern-
ment. He calls the Contras "those
killers that are going in murder-
ing Nicaraguans."
If President Reagan "doesn't
get his way through the Contras,"
McGehee said, he may turn to the
CIA to stage an incident that will
justify sending American troops
into Nicaragua to topple the Sand-
inista regime.
The' Gulf of 'Tonkin incident,
which precipitated American
troop involvement in the Vietnam
War, was just such a CIA-staged
event, he said.
When he joined the CIA in 1952;
McGehee said, "I was a Col ar.
rior. terry Goldwater had ning
on me." He believed "we were out
saving the world for democracy."
Gradually his- view changed,
and he spent his final few years in
the agency fruitlessly " rotesting
from wijhin." He finally retired
and went public with his criti-
cisms in 1977.
For 14 of his 25 years in the CIA,
McGehee served overseas, in
Japan, Taiwan, - 'hailand, the
Philippines and Vietnam.
was while helping train
spal police forces in Thailand
and Vietnam in the late 1960s that
McGehee began to protest the
CIA's reporting.. of "fantasy"
about the war. In its reports to
Congress, the agency knowingly
denied the "mass base of support
the communists enjoyed in those
two countries, he said.
Throughout American involve-
ment in Vietnam McGehee
charged, CIA intelligence was
concerned with "the creation of an
illusion. It had nothing to do with
reality."
Relying on the CIA for infor-
mation ` is like being the prov-
erbial mushroom,' he said.
"You're kept in the dark and
you're fed manure."
This policy of providing "disin-
formation" has been repeated
wherever the CIA has worked to
overthrow foreign governments,
McGehee said. Since World War
II, 'the CIA has overthrown,
among others, the governments of
Ecuador, Brazil and Chile, he
said.
The CIA now is active in Central
America, working to support a Re-
agan*backed military dictatorship
in El Salvador and to oppose a
generally popular Sandinista gov-
ernment in Nicaragua, McGehee
said.
"The problem (in Central
America) is abysmal poverty," he
said. "Yet we see the problem
there as Soviet involvement.
That's the excuse we use to justify
anything we do."
Common CIA tactics include
forgery,, staged communist
weapons shipments and controll-
ing elections, McGehee said, add-
ing "If the agency's good at any-
thing, It's pod at rigging elec-
tions.
"Death is almost a constant,
concomitant with any activity of
the agency," he added. ``Of
course, we see very active `Death
Squad' activity in El Salvador."
Through its covert activity,
McGehee warned, the CIA "is
destroying liberty, justice and
democracy ;,under the guise of
fighting communism."
And thanks to an wecutive or-
der signed by ; 'resident Reagan
on Dec. ! 1981, McGehee warned.,
the CIA is now free to conduct cov-
ert operations , in. the United
States.
McGehee's appearance was one
of a series of events being 'held
during Central America Infor-
mation Week in Eau Claire.
STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/17: CIA-RDP91-00587R000200780024-1